Jonathan Summerton Barcelona race notes

Jonathan, starting the weekend off in the new Volkswagen engine car in
what has been described as the most competitive series in the world, the
Formula3 Euro Series, was ready to go, with high hopes of being in the
top 10. Problems occurred in...

Jonathan, starting the weekend off in the new Volkswagen engine car in
what has been described as the most competitive series in the world, the
Formula3 Euro Series, was ready to go, with high hopes of being in the
top 10. Problems occurred in free practice with suspension and gearbox
problems. The gearbox problem caused Jonathan to lose 45 minutes of
valuable testing time in the hour practice. This caused the team to
scramble to rebuild the box. Qualifying was over, albeit 7 minutes, when
they finished the rebuild. This gave Jonathan just three hot laps to
prove he has the speed. He rose to the challenge placing his car within
9 tenths of a second off the fastest. On his final hot lap he was again
thwarted by a red flag leaving him with 23rd on the grid.

It was a frantic start in the first race as the start was delayed due to
rain as the drivers sat at their grid positions. "We changed the tires to
wets and altered a little on the set up which time permitted and were
off", said Jonathan. "I had a good start and within 10 laps was up to
11th from 22nd. Then, in an overtaking maneuver, I was pushed into the
curb causing me to spin and thus loose 10 places." Jonathan was able to
work his way back through the field with 15 laps remaining finishing
16th. "I am disappointed with the result and know if I hadn't been pushed
off would have been in the top 8."

Jonathan set the 3rd fastest lap of the race proving that he, together
with the VW engine and RC Motorsports car can run just as fast as the
front runners.

In Race 2 Jonathan had a great start and was rocketing towards the front
of the field when he was sandwiched between 2 cars and hit from behind.
Jonathan's race was over before he even crossed the start line. I am
really unhappy with the way some drivers handled the situation. I was
clearly in and they just decided to hit me from all angles. I feel we had
a car that could have run in the top 10 easy. Because of a driver being
to stuborn to let one car by instead of ending 6 people's races.

In Nagaro next week we will have another opportunity to show the world
that VW can be the leader in F3 Euro Series.